Oligo-recurrence from anaplastic lymphoma kinase-rearranged lung adenocarcinoma

Anaplastic lymphoma kinase rearranged non-small-cell lung cancer is a rare disease. Among them, a subset of patients exist who exhibit relatively slowly progressing symptoms and have oligo-metastases. In this article, we present two cases of ALK rearran-ged lung adenocarcinoma in patients who experienced postoperative oligo-recurrence. Both cases were treated with surgical resection and gamma knife irradiation for oligo-recurrence. After local therapy, the first patient remained disease free for over  23 months; the second for over 18 months. It appears that some patients with ALK rearranged NSCLC experience oligo-recurrence in their clinical course. For such patients, appropriate local therapy may be beneficial in improving both the quality of life and the prognosis

Chronic expanding hematoma in the chest: A case report

Chronic expanding hematoma (CEH) is a rare disease that is usually present as a large solitary pulmonary nodule. CEHs are slow growing, but processes underlying their development remain unknown. The present study herein reports the case of a 76‑year‑old male patient with CEH and discusses a number of CEH cases published in the literature. The majority of these previously described patients were Asians. The CEH in the present case was not a successfully resected one, but the patient\u27s clinical course provided information concerning the natural history of the disease. During the clinical course, the patient underwent several chest computed tomography scans. For the present case report, the doubling time and volume change of the mass was calculated, which revealed that the lesion had an inconstant growth rate and that its onset was between 8.2‑11.0 years before the patient succumbed to this disease. Accumulation of knowledge about this rare disease will help to elucidate it further

Sclerosing Pneumocytoma Accompanied with Dilated Air-Containing Space

Sclerosing pneumocytomas are one of the most common benign lung tumors [...

VATS and Intrapleural Fibrinolytic Therapy for Parapneumonic Empyema

With great interest, we read the article by Samancilar et al. on the efficacy of video-assisted thoracoscopic (VATS) and intrapleural fibrinolytic (IPFib) therapy in parapneumonic empyema treatment (February issue, Ann Thorac Cardiovasc Surg, 2018)

Thymic Ccancer Superimposed Opacity of the Mediastinal Anatomical Structures

Thymic cancer is a rare malignant neoplasm [...